Table 6.13 — Area of commercial timberland in tlie United States, by ownership and section, 



January 1, 1977 



Ownership 



Total, United States 



North 



South 



Rocky 

 Mountains 

 and Great 



Plains 



Pacific 



Area 



Proportion 



Coast' 





Thousand 





Thousand 



Thousand 



Thousand 



Thousand 





acres 



Percent 



acres 



acres 



acres 



acres 



Federal: 















National Forest 



88,718,3 



18.4 



9,201,2 



11,543.5 



36,476.9 



31,496.7 



Bureau of Land 















Management 



5,802.8 



1.2 



17.9 



3.1 



1,668.5 



4,113.3 



Other Federal 



4,889.3 



1.0 



788.6 



3,572.4 



176.5 



351.8 



Total 



99,410.4 



20.6 



10,007.7 



15,119.0 



38,321.9 



35,961.8 



State 



23,415.3 



4.9 



12,832.3 



2,594.7 



2,235.0 



5,753.3 



County and municipal 



6,834.1 



1.4 



5,605.4 



727.3 



76.8 



424.6 



Indian 



6,061.8 



1.3 



855.6 



184.9 



2,849.7 



2,171.6 



Forest industry 



68,782.2 



14.2 



17,658.4 



36,500.1 



2,095.5 



12,528.2 



Farmer 



115,777.1 



24.0 



38.797.1 



61,398.1 



10,017.9 



5,564.0 



Other private 



162,205.0 



33.6 



65,878.8 



83,423.6 



4,772.0 



8,130.6 



All ownerships 



482,485.9 



100.0 



151,635.3 



199,947.7 



60,368.8 



70,534.1 



'Excludes some 18 million acres that may be classified as commercial timberland upon completion of forest surveys in interior Alaska. 

 Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. An analysis of the timber situation in the United Slates, 1952-2030. (In process.) 



timber harvesting. Part of the acreage in these owner- 

 ships is in heavily populated areas. While small size, 

 management objectives, and location may constrain 

 the potential for managing some of the area in these 

 ownerships as production units, and at any given time 

 limit the area available for harvest, all of these acres 

 grow timber. Tenures are short and objectives change 

 as owners change. The available evidence suggests 

 that nearly all of the timber on these ownerships 

 sooner or later becomes available and is used for 

 industrial wood products or fuelwood. 



Hardwood forest types made up of a plurality of 

 such species as oak and hickory, gum, maple, birch, 

 aspen, and other deciduous trees, occupied more than 

 half of the commercial timberland area in 1977. More 

 than two-fifths was occupied by the southern pines, 

 Douglas-fir, hemlock, spruce, and other softwood 

 species. The remainder, about 4 percent, does not 

 contain tree cover adequate to determine forest type 

 and is classified as nonstocked. 



The area of commercial timberland rose from 409 

 million acres in 1952 to 509 million in 1962. The 

 decline since then has been in response to land clear- 

 ing for such things as cropland, pasture land, roads, 

 and residential areas; reservation for other uses such 

 as wilderness and parks; and a slowdown in the area 

 of crop and pasture land reverting to forests. 



Hardwood forest types occupy more than half of the Nation's 

 commercial timberland. 



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228 



